The 4th Belper Scout Group was first registered with the national headquarter in 1923 and was based in St. Marks Church Openwoodgate. This early Group did not appear to be around for long and no other records can be found of it. The next record of the Group was in 1963 when we were registered again as meeting in the Central methodists Church Hall (or the Trinity Schoolroom as it was then known). In 1977 the Group purchased the Scout Hut, once used by 12th Belper, for £400 and moved it from Gibfield Lane, Belper to the grounds of the Central Methodists Church.
This remained our regular meeting place up till 1995 when the Church sold off some of their land, including the area with the Scout Hut on so a Focus DIY store (which is now an Aldi store) could be built. This required the Scout Hut to be moved again to its current location where it has been for the last 29 years.
4th Belper leaders were integral to the start of a long-standing relationship with the Pony Express Council and Camp Geiger in Missouri, USA. Started in 1985 when Scouts from the area hosted a contingent of Scouts from Missouri, Scouts from Belper District went to the USA and was hosted in and around St. Joseph Missouri and spent a week on Camp Geiger taking part in various activities with their new American Friends. Young people or Leaders from 4th Belper have been involved in every trip since.
Our dedicated volunteers come from many backgrounds each bringing their own skills, knowledge, and sense of fun and adventure to the Group. Some are long standing Scouters and others are relatively new to Scouting. Between us we manage the young people’s journey through Scouting, always leaving them new things to try and skills to learn so their interest doesn’t fade.
New volunteers are always welcome, whether you want to be in a young person focussed role or more behind the scenes helping with fundraising, Scout hut Maintenance or even just loading and towing the trailer to camp.
We aim to spend as much time as possible out and about during the lighter months, using the time to learn navigation, fire lighting, backwards cooking, hiking, camping but also having some fun and games in big spaces. We often use the local area, the Chevin, and the County Scout Campsite, Drum Hill are both only 10 minutes away and allows us access to more resources for the young people. In the Scout Group we also have leaders with archery, tomahawk and air rifle permits which we use to give the young people the opportunity to have a go.
The Cubs and Scouts always try and camp twice a year and the older Scouts get to carry out an expedition similar to DofE to challenge themselves and put all the skills they have learnt to the test.
4th Belper Scout Group is like a large family, both in the leadership team and within the sections. We have families with 2 or even 3 young people in the Group at the same time.
Every year we have a Christmas Camp where all the sections get together, the younger sections staying indoors, the older ones camping and spend a weekend doing some Christmas based crafting but also getting outside and running off some energy. It’s great to see the older Scouts mucking in and helping the Beavers and Cubs with the crafts and everyone mixing together at mealtimes.
An explorer, adventurer and TV presenter, Dwayne's been seen in BAFTA nominated Channel 5 series Race to the Pole, on BBC Springwatch, Countryfile, National Geographic and Disney+.
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